by Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY

by Elizabeth Weise, USATODAY

SAN FRANCISCO - In a rare glimpse behind the tech curtain, Google has released its diversity figures.

The numbers weren't good, but they were also in line with the few other companies that release such figures.

Eighty-three percent of Google's tech workers internationally are male. For non-tech jobs, the number is 52%. Its leadership is made of up 79% men.

In terms of racial diversity, the company overall is 61% white, 30%, Asian, 3%, Hispanic, and 2%, black.

For tech positions, the numbers are similar - 60% are white, 34%, Asian, 2%, Hispanic, and 1%, black.

In terms of leadership, the company skews more white. Seventy-two percent of its leaders are white, 23%, Asian, 2%, black, and 1%, Hispanic.

Tech companies have long kept information about the makeup of their workforces secret.

A San Jose Mercury News attempt in 2010 to get Silicon Valley's 15 largest companies to disclose the race and gender of their workforces resulted in five companies, Google, Apple, Yahoo, Oracle and Applied Materials, fighting the request on the grounds that it would cause them competitive harm.

A similar attempt two years later by CNN Money had much the same results.

Google decided that being open with its numbers was the first step toward changing them.

Speaking to Gwen Ifill on The PBS NewsHour, Google's vice president of "people operations," Laszlo Bock, said, "We're not where we want to be when it comes to diversity. And it is hard to address these kinds of challenges if you're not prepared to discuss them openly, and with the facts."

The only tech company of Google's size that has freely released its diversity information in the past is Intel. It posts its yearly Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report to the federal government on its website.

For 2013, the chipmaker had a workforce that was 76% male, 57%, white, 29%, Asian, 8%, Hispanic, and 3%, black.

Companies in Silicon Valley have been reluctant to share diversity information, because the numbers aren't that attractive.

Google is working to bring more women and minorities into the company, through better outreach, training of current staff and also encouraging those who historically haven't studied tech subjects to do so.

Women and non-Asian minorities are very underrepresented in technology, in part because of who pursues computer science degrees.